Russian debtors banned from traveling abroad pay back $19 million

Throughout the year, Russian bailiffs have been banning more debtors from traveling abroad, forcing them to pay back roughly $285 million of debts, twice as much as last year, the press office of the Federal Bailiffs Service told TASS on Oct. 6.

"Due to the use of this travel ban, this year debtors have been forced to pay back 17.8 billion rubles (roughly $285 million) of debts while in the first eight months of 2015 only nine billion rubles (roughly $144 million) were paid off," the press service said.

During the first eight months of 2016, the bailiffs issued more than 1.3 million temporary travel bans that is 50.4 percent more that in the same period last year when about 889,200 travel bans were issued.

This year, the Federal Bailiffs Service of the Russian Federal Security Service handed down over 2.1 million travel bans, compared to about 1.3 million travel bans were implemented in the January to August period in 2015.

More than 18,500 debtors received the unpleasant news that a travel ban had been placed on them at border control, where customs officials deprived them of the right to leave the country by the Bailiffs Service decision.